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Blake Richards

Dr. Blake Richards’ research explores the neurobiology of learning and memory, with the ultimate goal of understanding how experience alters the synaptic connections in the brain. Research in the Richards Lab seeks a unification between experiment and theory by testing hypotheses from computational neuroscience and machine learning. One of the major projects in Dr. Richards’ lab is to identify potential neurophysiological mechanisms for mediating deep learning in the neocortex. This work uses computational models, electrophysiology and in vivo 2-photon imaging to explore how signals between brain regions can coordinate learning across multiple layers of information processing. The second major project in Dr. Richards’ lab explores the interaction between episodic memories, schemata and reinforcement learning. Dr. Richards’ has previously shown that, in-line with computational models of memory consolidation, animals switch over time from using episodic memories to more general or schematic memories when engaged in reinforcement learning. His lab is further exploring the computational utility of this switch as well as the neurobiological mechanisms in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus that underpin it.